Indian Railways Plans to Start 200 More Trains From June 1

Indian Railways will start 200 additional trains from June 1 to ferry passengers as the nation gradually eases coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Tickets will be sold online and through physical booking windows, Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman of the Railway Board, said in a televised address to reporters.

Passengers will be screened at the stations and only those without symptoms will be allowed to travel, according to a presentation. Travellers will have to wear face masks and install the government’s contact-tracing application Aarogya Setu on their smartphones.

“We’ll try to restore passenger services gradually, as we move to normalcy,” he said.

The new trains next month will be in addition to the fleet operating to carry migrant workers home. In the next 10 days, the carrier plans to ferry nearly 4.6 million workers to their home towns, Yadav said.

While passenger services remained curtailed during the lockdown, the railways kept operating its freight trains, carrying coal, fertilizer and grains.